Interior Minister Muammer Guler told Turkey's NTV the bombs had gone off near the town hall and post office.

Video showed injured people being carried to safety amid shattered buildings and twisted wrecks of cars.

No group has said it had carried out the attack, but a top member of the Turkish government suggested Syrian involvement.

Continue reading the main story  Start Quote

We stand with the people of Turkey

William Hague UK foreign secretary "Our thoughts are that their Mukhabarat [the Syrian intelligence agency] and armed organisations are the usual suspects in planning and the carrying out of such devilish plans," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

Reyhanli is an entry-point for refugees from the war in Syria and local people attacked cars with Syrian number-plates and Syrian refugees after the attack, according to local media.

The Turkish government has been a key supporter of the Syrian opposition, and has allowed rebels as well as refugees on to its territory.

Getting hot, Turkey will not let this stand without a response. This is right on the border

Turkey: 3rd Explosion Reported In Reyhanli May 11, 2013 | 1701 GMT Another explosion has been reported May 11 in Reyhanli, Turkey, hours after two explosions killed at least 40 people and injured 100, according to NTV, AFP reported. The blast took place in a heavily populated area a short distance from the town's center, NTV said

2
posted on 05/11/2013 11:08:44 AM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

In addition, Russia has its own problems with Islamists in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and it fears rebellions similar to Syrias breaking out in such areas as Dagestan, Abkhazia, Ingushetia or Chechnya. By supporting its ally in Syria, the Kremlin is sending a strong message to dissident groups that might want to fight unpopular governments within the Russian federation. The Syrian regime also provides Russia with a key strategic asset: a deep warm-water port at Tartus. The lack of such a port has plagued Russias global ambitions for centuries and is said to be one reason behind its invasion of Afghanistan.

The importance of the port may not be as great as it was in Soviet times, but unfettered access to the high seas remains a driving force for Russian strategic thinking as Russias main ports are either ice-locked for much of the year or land-locked by straits controlled by other powers.

Tartus, which garrisons Moscows growing Mediterranean fleet, is worth defending for the Kremlin. The recent shipment of arms delivered to the port underscored Russias commitment to its multibillion-dollar arms deal while ignoring an E.U. arms embargo. The port is being upgraded to accommodate larger vessels, as Assad declared the port will eventually be home to some of Moscows nuclear-armed warships.

11
posted on 05/11/2013 12:08:07 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

Thanks...i will read it. Does everyone remember though back during President Bush’s term when all the dems like Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry were constantly going to Syria to suck up to Assad? They seemed to relish in trying to back Syria the whole time Bush was trying to limit Syria’s influence in the region to keep them and Iran from taking advantage of the instability in Iraq. The dems were very adept at undermining every effort in Iraq..they also coddled Quadaffi...did not want Saddam overthrown...etc. Etc.

Now suddenly...the dems hate Assad and want to overthrow him? They ran in to overthrow Quadaffi....Egypt...and on and on. Why the change? What is going on? Seems to me they are just using the whole ‘democracy’ movement to usher in radical Islamist rule all over the Middle East.

12
posted on 05/11/2013 12:12:15 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

Yes and yes, he was a man we can work with as he went to school in America , I wish we could see that run every night on TV it would make them all Look like stupid fools they are, don’t forget Kerry was for the over through of the Sha of Iran that started all this crap. He said the new leadership are people wecan work with, uhg.

13
posted on 05/11/2013 12:17:47 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

"Our thoughts are that their Mukhabarat [the Syrian intelligence agency] and armed organisations are the usual suspects in planning and the carrying out of such devilish plans," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

14
posted on 05/11/2013 12:18:50 PM PDT
by SunkenCiv
(Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)

This is getting interesting look who is coming to Turkeys defense, strange bedfellows. Remember the story that had Stevens involved with an Iranian woman who I pegged as spy back in sept or October, I’ll dig that out.

Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Oceania Seyyed Abbas Araqchi has condemned the recent explosion in a Turkish town near the border with Syria.

This incident is a brutal terrorist crime and such crimes that target ordinary people are condemned whenever in the world, Araqchi said on Saturday.

Offering his condolences to the Turkish government and nation, Araqchi said, Fighting terrorism is the common duty of all countries.

We hope that terrorism is uprooted in all countries in the region and the world through cooperation among governments, the Iranian official added.

Several blasts rocked Reyhanli town in the southern province of Hatay on Saturday as a result of which at least 40 people were killed and more than 100 others injured.

Turkish Interior Minister Muammar Guler said the explosions were were caused by car bombs, adding that two vehicles packed with explosives detonated near the towns post office and municipality.

“We are going to launch an inquiry into all this, so that everything becomes clear,” Guler said, adding that the regional governor was sent to Reyhanli to put the necessary security measures in place.”

In February, 17 people were killed and 30 others injured after a minibus exploded at a crossing on Turkey’s border with Syria near Reyhanli.

The Cilvegozu border post is one of the main crossing points for Syrian refugees into the neighboring country, according to Turkish officials.

16
posted on 05/11/2013 12:25:20 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

Obama leans communist on some things but he’s also a Muslim sympathizer. Remember how it took him forever to take any kind of stand on Syria because he likely had sympathy for Assad. But his actions on Libya and Egypt made his silence untenable.

Right now I think he wants to do whatever causes the least trouble for himself. Keep in mind there are still reports out there that Saddam’s WMD are in Syria. If that turned out to be true that would cause massive trouble for the democrats.

Looks like the Islamists and AQ are pretty much double crossing everyone in the region to me. And because Obama has no core or experience other than Marxist and Muslim rubbish, his strings are being pulled by every bad actor at home and abroad. He is playing with fire and about the set the whole place up in flames with his diddling.

Sure wish we had the grown ups back in charge in DC. At least we knew that their loyalties were with this country even when they made mistakes!

18
posted on 05/11/2013 12:52:32 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

My post in November , sorry its long but I want to archive this article before it disappears .

This article has always troubled me. She says she had a date with the Ambassodor which from what we have been told is ODD. She has free access in and out of Iran. She has done propaganda films? Agent of Iran? Why are they friends? connect the dots.

Read more at Middle East Voices: http://middleeastvoices.voanews.com/2012/09/ambassador-christopher-stevens-as-i-knew-him-a-personal-reflection-47795/#ixzz2T0zjNP00
Official titles can be burdensome for those who hold them. They can obscure a persons humanity  a humanity that is often exposed more in death than it is in life. Those who personally knew U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed last week along with three other Americans in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, can attest to that. Mana Rabiee of Voice of Americas Persian News Network was among those who counted the late ambassador as a friend. She has this to share about him.

The last time I saw Chris Stevens was on an early Friday evening in May several days before he departed for Tripoli as the new U.S. Ambassador to Libya.

He entered my small Washington apartment dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and a dusty-looking polo shirt. He handed me a bag of pistachios, a bottle of champagne, and apologized for his scruffy appearance, explaining that, in preparation for his new assignment to Libya, he had just completed, that afternoon, two weeks of mandatory training in emergency self-defense.

Mana Rabiee

I was too overwhelmed with the fact this might be the last time I see my friend in a long while to fully fathom the meaning of his remark, so as we entered the living room we spoke, instead, about my new furniture. It was only after we settled down on the couch that Chris, as he leaned back cracking open the pistachios, described the self-defense training in more detail.

Chris, and some of his colleagues going with him to Tripoli, he said, had been learning how to handle themselves during a convoy attack, kidnapping or other hostile event. It was routine State Department procedure for certain overseas assignments. He had learned, among other things, how to speed away in a car in reverse, how to maneuver a moving car from the front passenger seat should his driver become incapacitated, and how to fire a pistol.

I asked, naively, surely they dont expect an ambassador will ever be in such a scenario? Chris replied the risks can never be completely removed but they can be reduced.

Only ten percent of the people caught in these situations come out alive, he said, and the purpose of the training is to help put you into that ten percent.

My friend, Chris Stevens, died doing what he loved the most, for a people so close to his own heart ,  Mana Rabiee

In retrospect, the conversation completely haunts me. But at that moment, Chriss mood was light. The Algerian singer Souad Massi, whose voice he liked, was playing on my stereo, and Chris was saying all of this, mostly, with a smile (he was always smiling). I think, too, he felt a boyish excitement at the extreme-driving he got to do that day; or maybe he simply didnt want to alarm me.

But of course I was alarmed. He reassured me he travels with bodyguards and we didnt say more on that.

Instead, we talked about my work (Im a journalist) and a little about the people we used to date. He had an early tennis match the next morning with the Libyan ambassador, so a couple of hours later I walked him to my front door and we hugged good-bye.

It would be, of course, the last time I would ever see him.

The first time I met Chris Stevens was in the summer of 2010 on a blind date. Chris had sat on the State Departments Iran Desk at one point, and as I was born in Tehran, Iran was our initial connection. We wouldnt date again that year; Chriss work with the Foreign Service meant he would always be leaving for someplace new and my own itinerant childhood growing up in various countries caused me to recoil a little from his fluid lifestyle.

But over several months we developed a cordial and, much later, a warm personal friendship. When we would meet for a catch-up drink (it was always red wine or a beer for him) we didnt discuss work very much. Instead, our conversations were dominated by stories of our travels and to some extent of our families.

One of the first things I noticed, and liked, about Chris was how close he was with his entire extended family. He told me once about a holiday dinner at his parents home in Northern California. Miscellaneous tables had been placed together in a long row to make room enough for thirty people. Everyone had duck.

His parents had divorced, then each remarried, but I dont remember Chris referring to his step-father as just that  a step-father. It was simply my father, or my sister when mentioning his half-sibling.

In truth, I became confused about his exact family connections because Chris never drew a clear demarcation line for me between his biological and step families. They were always pictured for me as one harmonious unit.

I mention this because I confessed to Chris one evening that his peaceful blended family was in marked contrast to my own, sometimes volatile, relations with step-parents and half-sibling.

Chris, it seemed to me, grew up with peace in his household. I imagine it was a personal peace he took with him into adulthood and later to his work as a Foreign Service Officer, where his legacy, we now learn, will be as that of a peace builder.

Before he was appointed envoy to the Libyan opposition, Chris told me he was being considered for a new diplomatic post which would have been his most high profile assignment to that date. He seemed excited about this prospect and I knew he wanted the job very much. A month or so later I asked him how that was going. He didnt get the assignment, after all, he told me, but when I said I was sorry about that he seemed to brush it aside saying it was just as well.

I like where my life has taken me so far, he told me. We were at a live jazz club in Washington and I had to lean in to hear. He said he was happy in Washington and content to stay here for the time being. He was sure his lifes path would lead him to even better places yet.

That better place was the Libyan assignment he would receive just weeks later, first as envoy and then as ambassador.

In June, Chris sent a long catch-up email to family and friends. It was an overview of his first six weeks in Libya and included mostly his impressions of the political landscape with some quaint details of his teams living arrangements.

The description that charmed me the most was this:

Despite these challenges, though, Ive been able to take daily runs in our somewhat rural neighborhood of goat farms and olive groves and vineyards.

I dont believe in Heaven, but if I did, it would be a dusty Mediterranean pastoral scene with friendly wild animals running about in wide open spaces.

My friend, Chris Stevens, died doing what he loved the most, for a people so close to his own heart and in a place that looked, to me, like Heaven itself.

Well..she certainly did not sound like a Muslim necessarily for sure(drinking, etc.)

So many Iranian families came to America when Jimmy Carter blew up Iran and installed the mullahs that she could descend from some of them. ?? Interesting article for sure. It sounded like she cared deeply for him though.

Reading it though I wondered what the assignment was that she mentioned he really wanted and was turned down for?

22
posted on 05/11/2013 1:08:09 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

I will give you a little tip, one way that operators get assets is to network with friends. I know this sounds bad but how do you find other who are like minded and in the same business. You attend services and meet and greet.

I just find this relationship very strange and her access to Iran is very difficult to maintain. You must have people inside the ruling party to have this access. Just another fact to put in our brains to see the whole picture.

24
posted on 05/11/2013 1:15:21 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

How about this just happen to be working the Tehran desk oh boy. give us information or we will out you.

The first time I met Chris Stevens was in the summer of 2010 on a blind date. Chris had sat on the State Departments Iran Desk at one point, and as I was born in Tehran, Iran was our initial connection. We wouldnt date again that year; Chriss work with the Foreign Service meant he would always be leaving for someplace new and my own itinerant childhood growing up in various countries caused me to recoil a little from his fluid lifestyle.

Oh I know...have read a lot of Tom Clancy novels..lol. The access to Iran is troubling for sure, but she could also be one of our ‘assets’ too.

Lots of international and domestic intrigue going on right now . I have spent (or wasted) most of the day reading about that region of the world and all the world actors on the stage.

Not sure what I’ve read has given me any clues or information but it has been interesting to try and better educate myself and a good excuse to be lazy too. Work in the garden will have to wait until tomorrow....lol. I have to save the world......lol. :)

30
posted on 05/11/2013 1:37:54 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

Nothing Pelosi, Hitlery, Kerry, Reid or the rest of the older-line Demwits do or can do will ever be enough for Obama and his cadre, because they are white and he’s a racist.

Regardless, he’s a (purported) POTUS of their own party — remember how Pelosi pushed that Armenian genocide resolution when GWB was President and trying to improve relations with Turkey? Not a peep about the Armenian genocide since. Weird, eh?

36
posted on 05/11/2013 2:13:01 PM PDT
by SunkenCiv
(Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)

RE: "Is that the area that McCain has proposed as a safe area complete with US Air cover..." I believe your answer is a yes as to the area in southern Turkey McCain had suggested a no fly zone be set up.

The dems ran all over the Middle East stirring up trouble for our troops in Iraq. I did a lot of research back then into George Soros Open Society Institute and found he actually had a leftwing foundation training journalists for the ‘New’ Iraq and his ‘graduates’ went on to write propaganda to foment the violence that lead to so much bloodshed for our own troops and the Iraqi people!

These democrats cannot be trusted in any way to have this country’s best interests at heart. That told me everything I needed to know about the leaders in the democrat party.

38
posted on 05/11/2013 2:18:30 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

Oh that’s right! I forgot about that one! What is it with these people? I cannot figure out what their foreign policy actually is...they are all over the map...no rhyme or reason unless it is to so weaken our country that we cannot respond to any threat..anywhere.

40
posted on 05/11/2013 2:29:44 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

I can give you an A+ on all your wrote with one little catch. There are those with the Federal Government as well as many think tanks that would like to see Syria changed into a safe democracy to help stabilize the ME. Oil/Gas is still king. As well the potential that the Russians would no longer be welcome and lose their warm water port of the Syrian coast. The Russians always must be included in the equation. But I have the same sentiments as to why our brave men and women must die and be maimed, and stand long times from families and loved ones for some of these damn wars the USA gets involved in. I have a nephew working in Jordan with an international corporation, and a former Marine nephew located in a remote FOB in southern Afghanistan, in the areas of most of the recent bad things that took place. So I have a personal stake in how things go in these areas. I knew of some of the Marines that died during my nephews two tours in Iraq. Fine men. Now widows and children must struggle with their great loss. Tis all a mixed bag. Sadly.

why does Russia or anybody for that matter give a hoot what goes on in Syria?

Russia stands to lose business, money and influence, in the middle east with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood Caliphate, and the Christian civilization (which Russia is rejoining), stands to lose everything.

43
posted on 05/11/2013 2:49:30 PM PDT
by Navy Patriot
(Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)

I understand a need for stabilized regions in the Middle East...but Obama has done nothing but destabilize several countries now that were actually fairly stable until he got involved.
I can also see a strategy to let them fight it out among themselves too...keep them busy killing each other. We keep our military the strongest in the world and if things get out of hand..we go in and secure the oil fields and shipping lanes....nothing else.

44
posted on 05/11/2013 3:12:41 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

...we should be fighting for Russia now and not a bunch of Islamist savages.

Russia is the entity that, at present, is advocating for stability, as in no change in recognized legal governments in the Middle East for the reasons I stated.

Considering the degradation of peace, security, human rights and human liberty in all the ME nations that have recently "reformed" their "democracies" (Algeria, Egypt, Libya), the Russian policy of "no change of the legal, recognized government" is the best course of action for Western Civilization and the most detrimental to the rise of the World Caliphate.

Obama and the American DemoRats would only fight for Russia when they were the Communist Soviet Union, not now.

46
posted on 05/11/2013 3:39:41 PM PDT
by Navy Patriot
(Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)

I have been reading most of the day about the global power players involved in this mess. I have to agree with you. Russia seems to be on the right side of history in these latest ME fiascos. Why we coddled Saudi Arabia while they stab us in the back is a mystery. We should tell them to keep their Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia Law crap away from us or we will invade their countries, destroy Mecca and take all their oil. Boom!! Problem solved.

48
posted on 05/11/2013 3:53:04 PM PDT
by penelopesire
(TIME FOR OBAMA TO ANSWER FOR BENGHAZI UNDER OATH!!)

Turkey: Initial Findings Tie Bombings To Syrian Intelligence
May 11, 2013 | 2234 GMT
The preliminary investigation into the bombings in Reyhanli, Turkey, on May 11 suggests Syria’s intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, was behind the attacks, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told Today’s Zaman newspaper, Xinhua reported. The bombings were not tied to Syrian refugees or the Syrian opposition, Atalay added. The blasts killed at least 45 people and wounded more than 100 in the town in Hatay province near the Syrian border.

49
posted on 05/11/2013 4:06:15 PM PDT
by crosslink
(Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)

Makes you just shake your head doesn’t it? I really can’t grasp people that follow soros and the sheer evil he embodies.

Btw, noticed your post about letting the gardening go for the day, glad to know I’m in good company! So much needs my attention and yet, the last few days has so much info to digest I can’t seem to pull myself away.

A very Happy Mother’s Day to you in case I don’t get around to posting tomm.

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